July 28 – August 31

The 1948 Festival amounted to a summit meeting between two conductors. Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted a new Fidelio in the Festspielhaus, while Herbert von Karajan brought out Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in the Felsenreitschule – the first opera ever performed in this venue. The covert rivalry between these two maestros prevented them from jointly taking part in the Festival, a solution that would doubtless have been preferred by audiences and critics alike. Apart from two orchestral concerts in 1949, it was not until after Furtwängler’s death that Karajan would return to Salzburg. In contrast, Ferenc Fricsay’s star remained in the ascendant. This year he presented the first staged performance of Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé, thereby extending the Festival’s series of contemporary music theatre. In the spoken theatre, the era of Ernst Lothar commenced with a staging of Grillparzer’s Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen.